Toby Bedford cleared to play elimination final v Saints after mammoth contest of ban

Jarred Cross Published September 7, 2023 at 4.30pm (AWST)

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The Giants overturned Bedford's one-match ban for rough conduct at the AFL Appeal Board on Thursday. (Image: GWS Giants Facebook)

Toby Bedford is free to play in GWS's elimination final against St Kilda on Saturday after successfully appealing his one-match ban for rough conduct against Carlton's Zac Fisher in round 24.

The Giants overturned the ruling at the AFL's Appeal Board on Thursday afternoon after the sanction was upheld at the tribunal on Monday.

Bedford was handed the ban for the off-the-ball hit during the third quarter of their win over the Blues to clinch a finals berth, which was graded careless conduct, medium impact and high contact by the league's match review officer.

Fisher passed a concussion assessment after the incident.

Toby Bedford has received a one-match ban for rough conduct on Zac Fisher.
Full Sunday MRO findings: https://t.co/2BFvxfQeHP pic.twitter.com/eUm6nU4Swx

— AFL (@AFL) August 28, 2023

His chance to face the Saints initially looked over after the tribunal maintained the MRO's view, before the Giants flagged their intention to make a final shot at downgrading the charge.

On Thursday, the Giants and Bedford, through their representation and biomechanist evidence, argued the force of the impact could not be properly determined from available footage of the collision.

Fisher himself had previously given evidence of not recalling high contact.

Appeal Board later sided with their case that the evidence was not sufficient enough to determine the forcefulness of the contact, after more than an hour of deliberation.

"We accept it was open to the Tribunal who found that there was contact by the body to player Fisher's head," Appeal Board chairman Murray Kellam said, via AAP.

"But in our view, neither the evidence or the reasons expressed by the Tribunal in respect of such evidence is sufficient to establish that such contact was forceful as required by the AFL regulations."

The outcome comes after 11 days of interest since the Giants' win over the Blues.

Bedford has played all but one game for GWS since debuting for the club in round seven after crossing from Melbourne ahead of the 2023 season.

The 23-year-old has been a key cog to their front half pressure within their conduit of small forwards in front of goals.

GWS travel to the MCG to face St Kilda in an elimination final on Saturday afternoon.

A win will see them meet with the loser of Thursday's qualifying final between Collingwood and Melbourne for a semi final in the second week of finals.